Wednesday, October 14, 2015

... to the second instalment of "Wicked Watch Wednesday" in which I aim to recommend something wonderfully wicked for you to watch EVERY WEDNESDAY between now and October 31st !!

In our house, we have Hallowe'en "traditions" much like we do for other annual festivities and, as with those other occasions, there are certain movies that are our favourites for the time of year and which we come back to (again and again) year after year. So, having begun this series of posts with a look at "Night of the Living Dead", for the first episode of "Wicked Watch Wednesday" last week, it seemed only right to suggest the 1978 sequel to that film as the subject matter for this followup post, as we have done in years gone by. Those of you who read the first instalment in this series of posts, may recall my mentioning that "Night of the Living Dead" (NoTLD) could well have provided the original inspiration for the (current) popular television series, "The Walking Dead"... but, this sequel goes far beyond "inspiration" and I may even go so far as to suggest it acted as a 'blueprint' for developing some of the storyline(s) for the zombie-based television series by expanding the apocalyptic vision beyond an isolated farmhouse to depict, on a much larger scale, the effects of a zombie plague on the wider society. It was almost two years later (29th June 1980) before it hit British cinemas but, when it did, here is the poster which would have greeted cinema-goers in the UK when it screened on these shores:-

Again directed by George A. Romero, but this time starring David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross, David Crawford, Richard France plus Howard Smith (amongst others), as none of the original characters from 'NoTLD' were featured, it follows the exploits of four more "survivors" as they flee the ever-expanding zombie plague, which began with the original 'NoTLD', and take refuge in an abandoned shopping mall. Tensions build as time goes on and they realise it's not just the zombies they have to fend off, when they begin to fall prey to consumerism as well as having to defend themselves against a large gang of bikers who decide to invade the mall. Anyway, for those of you that have yet to see this "cult classic", here's a brief taster of the film courtesy of the original trailer:-

If you'd like to know more there's a full list of the cast & credits on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) listing for "Dawn Of The Dead", FOUND HERE, which also includes a full storyline / plot summary as well as box office stats, technical specs & much more. For die-hard fans, there is even more information to be had from the Wikipedia Page for "Dawn Of The Dead", VIA THIS LINK, which may help to fuel your appetite for (yet) another screening. Although, if you're as much of a fan as we are, you probably won't take too much persuading to watch it again !!

As with many of the films I've highlighted thus far, the best recommendation I can make as to which of the available Roku channels you could use to watch this movie is to suggest "YouTube" as your first port-of-call on account of the vast number of horror movies which, thanks to this channel and it's associated apps, are now readily available to stream via your Roku player(s) whenever you choose.

If you haven't already got it in your channel selection, you can easily add it to your Roku player(s) using the recently introduced Roku 'Search' feature. Just start typing "YouTube" into the text entry box within Roku 'Search' and it will soon appear in the results column on the right. In fact, you will (most likely) only have to enter the letter "y" before it pops up in the list of results! For those who prefer to look it up the old-fashioned way, you'll find "YouTube" listed among the "Internet TV" channels in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store - itself, found by navigating to 'Streaming Channels' from the home screen and scrolling through the options - then click "OK" to access the list of "Internet TV" channels and scroll up (or down) until you see the channel icon (as per image above). The good news is... that it's completely FREE-TO-ADD as well as being FREE-TO-VIEW so, once you've located it in the list of channels, just click the "OK" button on your Roku remote to select it and then click "OK" again where it says 'Add channel' to install it on your Roku player(s). Having done that, launch the channel via the 'Go to channel' option and navigate the on-screen menu to play "Dawn Of The Dead" [Extended Mall Hours (Uncut)] on your Roku, which runs to 2h 35mins, and can be found at:-

For further movie memorabilia pertaining to "Dawn Of The Dead", I suggest that you visit a website called "Homepage of the Dead", FOUND HERE, where you'll find everything from posters, t-shirts, lobby cards, movie stills, button badges, DVD covers & much, MUCH MORE from around the globe. Another interesting site, containing 'Fan Art Posters' for the "Dawn of the Dead" movie, comes in the shape of a blog called "Beyond Horror Design" which can be found VIA THIS LINK. Meanwhile, for more genuine movie posters from around the world, you should also visit "The Film League" webpage for the "Dawn of the Dead" movie, AT THIS ADDRESS, which contains one or two items not found on the "Homepage of the Dead" and/or "Wrong Side Of The Art" websites for die-hard fans.

Finally, to round-off this second instalment of "Wicked Watch Wednesday" on 'Day Fourteen' of the annual 'Countdown To Halloween', comes a few FRIGHTENINGLY FUN FILM FACTS for you... in addition to directing the movie "Dawn of the Dead", George A. Romero has a cameo role in the film as the "director" in the WGON TV Studios, as well as a second cameo playing "Old Nick", which is the name given to the 'Santa Claus' biker, seen (briefly) in the motorcycle raid on the mall. Also, being the budget-conscious film-maker that he was, George A. Romero even employed the services of his wife, Christine Forrest, in a cameo role as Assistant to the Director (i.e. himself) for the scenes shot at the WGON TV Studios. Talk about keeping it in the family !!

In the meantime, for those of you seeking even more tidbits of trivia from the "Dawn of the Dead" movie, you should check out the detailed listing on the IMDB website, FOUND HERE, where you will find an abundance of interesting film facts that should keep you occupied for quite some time !!